Defender Stolen Sheffield City Centre Late 6th Jan / Early 7th Jan

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SteelCitySteves

SteelCitySteves

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Sheffield, UK
Land Rover 90 Defender Stolen from Sheffield City Centre in a locked compound with a Disklok on with wheels set at full lock.

They haven't managed to force the Disklok, they seem to have bent the sides of the lock and then forced it off the wheel from the front. I imagine the wheel is in quite a state.

Specifics of the vehicle:

1996 300Tdi N550 WRS 90 With County Sides. Green with White Roof. Galvanised Roof rack bolted to Rhino Roofbars, Spare Wheel cover did read "Timbercraft Display since 1984". I suspect it isnt there now.

I dont think I have any pictures of it, but if I find some I will post. Edit. Pic Found

PkJca3.jpg


Thanks
 
Last edited:
Update. Heard from the Police this morning that they have found the defender in an industrial unit with 3 others in various states and 4 arrests have been made.

Ours is apparently now partly resprayed black. It has been recovered to the police pound. I have notified the insurance company who say that they will talk with the police and arrange for it to be assessed or salvaged when they are done with it.

For those of you who have dealt with this kind of stuff before is there any way or any chance of me seeing the vehicle before the insurance assessors. If they were in the process of respraying it presumably it was partly taken apart. If they were doing 4 of the how are they going to know which parts belong to which?

Im just concerned that even though it has been recovered I might never get the chance to get it back or even see it.

Advice please.
 
I used to do vehicle recovery, so i have an idea what you can do. Go to the police and ask them where the vehicle has been taken and ask to see it, simple as that. If you want it back if it is written off, then talk to your insurance about buying it back. Me and the missus bought our car back after it was written off, the car was valued at £4200 and we got the car and £3300 back. Cost £400 to put right, bargain.
 
really glad to hear they found it mate! hopefully you'll come to a decent agreement with your insurance and get it back soon in a nice condition.
It sounds like your was stolen in exactly the same way as mine was attempted just the day after in sheffield by forcing the disklok off forwards. So lets hope these scumbags are out of action for now and wont be operating again.

All the best with everything :)
 
Cheers guys. The police are being quite cagey about how they caught them. They seemed to be a big operation. They had 3 complete defenders, 2 rolling chassis, a few chassis cut up, 5 or 6 axles, at least 6 bulkheads from 300Tdi up to Puma's, a few puma bonnets etc.

They also had to flatbed transits and a 18 tonne lorry with a winch and a drop down ramp so they might even have took the landy away in the back of that. I took a few pictures of it while we were down there. Will upload em at some point.

But suppose it is good that they have actually caught some scum and the case against them seems as good as it could get.
 
Maybe. I dunno though. They have ground the chassis number and all Id off of the vehicle, sprayed it a different colour and put different wheels and tyres on. So I assume they were going to attempt to sell it.
 
I would assume the police won't want to give away their methods as they may be chasing further connections. Also groups of people doing this type of thing as full time employment are well set-up and probably trying to cover their tracks.
 
A few pictures of the work they achieved in 36 hours.







There is overspray everywhere, they seem to have masked the rear windows but nothing else, the windscreen didn't need masking for some reason. They also seem to have run out of spray cans halfway across the bonnet. I'd be surprised if they even washed it before the painted it. Is there a chance I could get that paint back off it. I suspect it will all flake off with time but I'd like a quicker option. ;)
 
That's fast work. Not the best of paint jobs but they could put that down to doing it themselves as a home diy'er, when they sell. It's good of you to post this up as a warning to others. We all know about LR thefts and suspect organised crime is involved, but to see it for real is still a shock.

Grinding all the ID oft could be made more difficult for them if the windows had been etched too. It probably wouldn't have stopped the original theft but it would have given them an additional problem.

http://www.landyzone.co.uk/lz/f43/security-etching-glass-242382.html
 
Yeah. Definitely something I'll sort when we get it back. I wish I had marked more things. My wheels and tyres are on a different vehicle there. But because I didn't mark my wheels and tyres anywhere the police seem to be reluctant to swap them back. At the moment each wheel only has two nuts holding em on so they must acknowledge that the wheels and tyres have come off.
 
Do you have photo's of yer tratter before it was nicked with your wheels?

A set of metal punches which you mark cycles with is a good thing to have.
 
Not good buddy, you might not get it back if there's no ID, as they can't prove legally it's yours! Happened to my Sierra Cosworth, turned up under the railway arches down on Attercliffe! Stolen from West Street in broad daylight.
 
Hippo said:
Do you have photo's of yer tratter before it was nicked with your wheels?

A set of metal punches which you mark cycles with is a good thing to have.
Click to expand...

as i did when i rebuilt my tratter exept i stamped the chassis number behind the door locks on all doors on the back lip of the seatbox under the rear wheelarch on the rear tub the under edge of the roof gutter the top edge of the windscreen frame and the bulkhead behind the main dash pannel just to be awkward

going this far with a set of punches wont stop it getting nicked but its about as effective as smartwater :D:D
 
Hippo said:
Do you have photo's of yer tratter before it was nicked with your wheels?

A set of metal punches which you mark cycles with is a good thing to have.
Click to expand...

I have pictures, but the tyres are more worn (the pictures are 18 months old and the tyres are BFG M/T which have mainly been used on road) and although the police said that they are more than likely my wheels and tyres there is no way to prove it. The vehicle that they are on at the moment is made out of at least 2 other vehicles which they haven't yet identified so they wont transfer them over until they trace the owners of the others which may never happen.

I will sort out a set of punches for its return.

biggeeeee said:
Letter + Number Punch Set 36 Piece | Toolstation
Click to expand...

Cheers, will get some on order :)

Pagin said:
Not good buddy, you might not get it back if there's no ID, as they can't prove legally it's yours! Happened to my Sierra Cosworth, turned up under the railway arches down on Attercliffe! Stolen from West Street in broad daylight.
Click to expand...

The police are satisfied that the vehicle is ours, its just the wheels and tyres for now. I would also like all the lights and trim bits etc that they have removed. They say that they have a big box of those but cant link them to any vehicle either. I get that, but surely once they have finger printed them and whatever else they need to do they can just share them out. Surely the police are willing to accept that my vehicle had a front grill, bumper, lights and 5 nuts on each wheel. Why does the burden of proof have to be so high on us, aren't we meant to be the victim :confused:

johnny curt 1 said:
as i did when i rebuilt my tratter exept i stamped the chassis number behind the door locks on all doors on the back lip of the seatbox under the rear wheelarch on the rear tub the under edge of the roof gutter the top edge of the windscreen frame and the bulkhead behind the main dash pannel just to be awkward

going this far with a set of punches wont stop it getting nicked but its about as effective as smartwater
Click to expand...

We will get everything stamped up and will alter/increase the security on it. Looking at some of the vehicles and the restores people do on here I naively assumed that there would be other more desirable vehicles ahead of mine on the list. Stealing from a locked compound with a disklok on I always felt it was quite safe. It is normally blocked in by the firms van, but because of the snow we had had in Sheffield we swapped the two over cos there seemed no point in owning a landy if I cant get to it in the snow cos its blocked in by a van. :ballchain: It seemed a lot of people talked about Diskloks being infallible. I might post a picture of the lock and the wheel, I was surprised what good condition the wheel was in considering they have just peeled it off the front.

Cheers,

Steve
 
SteelCitySteves said:
I have pictures, but the tyres are more worn (the pictures are 18 months old and the tyres are BFG M/T which have mainly been used on road) and although the police said that they are more than likely my wheels and tyres there is no way to prove it. The vehicle that they are on at the moment is made out of at least 2 other vehicles which they haven't yet identified so they wont transfer them over until they trace the owners of the others which may never happen.

I will sort out a set of punches for its return.



Cheers, will get some on order :)



The police are satisfied that the vehicle is ours, its just the wheels and tyres for now. I would also like all the lights and trim bits etc that they have removed. They say that they have a big box of those but cant link them to any vehicle either. I get that, but surely once they have finger printed them and whatever else they need to do they can just share them out. Surely the police are willing to accept that my vehicle had a front grill, bumper, lights and 5 nuts on each wheel. Why does the burden of proof have to be so high on us, aren't we meant to be the victim :confused:



We will get everything stamped up and will alter/increase the security on it. Looking at some of the vehicles and the restores people do on here I naively assumed that there would be other more desirable vehicles ahead of mine on the list. Stealing from a locked compound with a disklok on I always felt it was quite safe. It is normally blocked in by the firms van, but because of the snow we had had in Sheffield we swapped the two over cos there seemed no point in owning a landy if I cant get to it in the snow cos its blocked in by a van. :ballchain: It seemed a lot of people talked about Diskloks being infallible. I might post a picture of the lock and the wheel, I was surprised what good condition the wheel was in considering they have just peeled it off the front.

Cheers,

Steve
Click to expand...
A standard Disklok is not good enough, you need to add more steel to it according to how much room there is around the column. Even if you only use a bit of scrap steel that you have lying around, which is what I did.... see attached pic.
 

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